x402 Facilitators: Coinbase, Circle And Others Compared

The official x402 documentation lists 15 facilitators that verify payment authorizations and settle transactions on-chain. The list is not exhaustive. A facilitator checks a signed authorization sent to a seller’s server and broadcasts the settlement transaction on the seller’s behalf.

The facilitator’s supported networks, tokens, fees and uptime become part of the seller’s payment system. The x402.org endpoint used in many tutorials is intended for testnet development and should not be used for mainnet payments.

Coinbase’s CDP facilitator publishes a fee schedule. It provides 1,000 free on-chain transactions each month and charges $0.001 for each additional transaction. Payment verification is free. The service supports fixed-price, ceiling and batch settlement schemes on Base, Polygon, Arbitrum and World, along with Solana. It supports ERC-20 tokens under the listed authorization standards and Solana SPL tokens.

Batch settlement can put several payments into one on-chain transaction. This changes the cost per payment. On Solana, the ceiling scheme requires a deposit and a settlement transaction, creating two on-chain transactions instead of one.

Circle operates a hosted facilitator for USDC payments on Arc, Base and Polygon PoS. Its service supports gasless nanopayments batched through Circle’s Gateway. Circle also offers a USDC-priced marketplace, agent wallets with spending policies, a command-line tool and open-source skills. The facilitator is designed around USDC rather than a broad range of ERC-20 tokens.

Fireblocks provides an Apache 2.0-licensed facilitator that companies can deploy themselves. It also offers a managed version through an early-access request. Settlements can be submitted from a merchant’s Fireblocks vault, while private keys remain inside Fireblocks. The implementation supports USDC-style authorizations, Permit2 for ERC-20 tokens, a ceiling option and smart-account delegation. It runs in testnet mode unless mainnet is enabled in its configuration.

Thirdweb provides facilitator services for EVM chains and supports custom facilitators. Its tools support fixed-price and ceiling payments, with examples for Arbitrum and Polygon. Prices denominated in dollars default to USDC on the selected network. Native-token payments are not supported, and other tokens must meet specified permit or authorization requirements.

Several networks list sponsored facilitators. Celo provides mainnet and testnet endpoints with gasless settlement. NEAR supports fixed-price payments on NEAR and Base with sponsored gas. Other listed services include Stellar, Mogami on Base, Dexter across Solana and EVM networks, Polygon, HPP, Canton and an XRP Ledger facilitator. Some are free or gasless and focus on one network or ecosystem. Mogami also offers a Docker deployment for self-hosting.

Sellers can run a facilitator in their own infrastructure or inside their application. Self-hosting removes the facilitator’s transaction fee and gives sellers control over supported chains, tokens and payment schemes. Sellers then manage keys, gas, monitoring, retries and chain reorganizations. Open-source options include Fireblocks’ implementation and Mogami’s Docker deployment.

The x402 documentation identifies the x402.org facilitator as a testnet service, despite its appearance in sample code, including Cloudflare’s x402 examples. Cloudflare provides software development kits and middleware for buyers and sellers, but does not operate a facilitator. Its examples use the public endpoint, which the documentation attributes to Coinbase.

Facilitator fees generally apply to settlements rather than payment requests. At Coinbase’s published rate, 50,000 monthly settlements would cost about $49 after the 1,000 free transactions, before network fees. Batching can reduce the number of on-chain transactions and the related cost.

The documentation recommends checking the facilitator URL in production code and testing an alternative provider before using one service for revenue-related payments. Providers differ in network coverage, token support, settlement schemes, fees and availability.